Black as Night – Review [Prime Video] (3/5)

BLACK AS NIGHT is out on Amazon Prime Video as part of the ‘Welcome to the Blumhouse‘ 4-movie Halloween 2021 addition. This is one of the better movies – even if it is still longer than it should be, it’s not by much. Read our full Black as Night movie review here!

BLACK AS NIGHT on Amazon Prime Video is a new Blumhouse horror movie. It’s being released for Halloween 2021, as part of this year’s ‘Welcome to the Blumhouse‘ which consists of four movies in total. In 2020, we also got four movies for the first year of the “Welcome to the Blumhouse” round for Halloween.

RELEASED ALONGSIDE THIS MOVIE

Check out Bingo Hell which is also part of “Welcome to the Blumhouse” in 2021 >

This is one of the better movies and definitely worth watching. It’s still longer than it should be, but it really isn’t by much. Also, the whole vampire element works in a new and intriguing way here.

Continue reading our Black as Night movie review below.

Social commentary and traditional horror

We’re seeing these social commentaries and traditional horror stories combined more than ever. And I must admit that I tend to like this. Certainly when people like Jordan Peele (Get Out) or Mike Flanagan (Midnight Mass) are in charge of telling the stories.

Of course, genre movies have always been commenting on social issues. Just often in campy or very over the top ways. Now it’s deeper and darker.

However, I wouldn’t say Black as Night excels at that. Instead, it’s more heartfelt with a teen love story as part of the plot as well. That’s fine, but it does not work in the favor of making it scarier. What I do like is the fact that we’re getting stories that are not just “white people™ horror”.

WELCOME TO THE BLUMHOUSE 2020

Check out the 2020 “Welcome to the Blumhouse” movie Black Box which also featured a black cast >

Also, when a movie features a black cast, it also has a writer and director of color. For Black as Night, we’re getting into something very dark. However, having just recently watched the new Candyman (2021), it also felt very familiar. Maybe it’s just a damn shame that the two are released too close to one another.

Especially because, in comparison, Black as Night won’t win.

Having said that, I still think this “Welcome to the Blumhouse 2021” movie is very interesting. Overall, it works for the majority of its runtime. It would just have been a lot stronger, had it been cut down in time.

Watch Black as Night on Prime Video

Maritte Lee Go is the director of Black as Night which is her feature film debut. She has directed quite a lot of short films since 2009 and is clearly a very capable director. I enjoyed the overall style and storytelling of this Blumhouse movie. It just should have been shorter and more horror-focused. Sure, the latter is a preference, but it is being released for Halloween.

The writer of Black as Night is Sherman Payne. Most recently, Sherman Payne has been working on the TV series Shameless, Scream, and Legacies. Also, he wrote on his first feature film in 2020, so he is just now getting started.

Black as Night is out as part of the “Welcome to the Blumhouse 2021”-Halloween release. It’s from the first batch of movies alongside Bingo Hell while the final two movies will be out on October 8, 2021.

Black as Night is out on Amazon Prime Video from October 1, 2021.

Details

Release Date: October 1, 2021 (Prime Video)
Director: Maritte Lee Go
Screenplay: Sherman Payne
Stars: Asjha Cooper, Fabrizio Guido, Mason Beauchamp, Abbie Gayle, Craig Tate, Keith David